Since the release of the first TRON installment almost three decades ago, the digital world the film created has had a profound and long-lasting influence over popular culture, contributing to a renewed aesthetic in the realms of science fiction, comics, and electronic music.Despite our awareness of the movie’s virtual world, we are less familiar with the sources of inspiration behind it. With TRON: Legacy‘s recent opening, it’s time to rediscover the work of the artists and creators instrumental in the creation of the early ’80s original. The Chappe Gallery in Paris, which opened in the heart of Montmartre in 2005, has decided to pay tribute to the illustrators, designers, and animators that joined forces to bring the film to life with a new group exhibition. With work on display by French illustrator Moebius (Jean Giraud), as well as artists Syd Mead, Daniel Simon, and Michael Wilkinson, this new exhibition shows comic book storyboards, illustrations, preparatory sketches, and unpublished photographs.We asked Alexandre Gilbert, the Chappe Gallery’s director and curator of the exhibition, a few questions.The Creators Project: The Chappe Gallery often exhibits work directly influenced by pop culture and metamorphosis. How would you define the thread tying all these exhibitions together?
Alexandre Gilbert: We’ve been influenced by three primary themes since we first opened. Our original influence was graffiti, followed by music, and we now seem to be immersing ourselves further into the world of cinema. Our interest lies in discovering and delving into the making of the celebrated pop culture theme, all the while questioning the creative process that led to the work’s creation in the first place.Is it this new orientation towards cinema that led to this TRON exhibit?
There is a correlation, yes. It’s the fifth animated film that we’ve exhibited at the Chappe, having previously shown Bill Plymton’s Idiots and Angels, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and an exhibition on Winschluss, the animator behind Persépolis, and another on Avatar.The exhibition is made up of many of the preliminary drawings, vehicle and scenery sketches, and storyboards. Did you intend to return to the movie’s origins and pay tribute to a certain artistic scene that inspired the film?
I wanted to explore the origins of the project. What I was interested in discovering was why it had been so influential in capturing the public’s imagination at the time, in particular that of what I would refer to as the information-technology intelligentsia, which would later move toward digital technology. I wanted to explore Moebius and Syd Mead’s initial interest in the original 1930s science fiction comic, and how it was that, while entrenched in the 1970s culture, in a period where films such as Blade Runner were being produced, philosophical theory was being fused with technology to give life to these products of pop culture.Have you noticed a disparity in the aesthetics of the two films?
I wouldn’t put it like that. What is immediately apparent is that the universe imagined in the first TRON was based on the idea that man would one day have access to a virtual reality for play. In TRON: Legacy, what strikes us as especially moving is how this world has now been created, and it is the one in which they now live. There is a complex sense of uncertainty in the film. We become lost in an intense schizophrenia because we too now have an involvement in the world of virtual reality. We unearth a new way of thinking. It’s the excitement of this second chapter.We place a lot of focus on the role played by digital technology, 3D imagery, and the ways in which these techniques are exploited to make up the final opus. Do you still believe it possible for creators like illustrators and designers to be successful in creating new practices?
Yes, of course. If we begin by taking a more pragmatic view on the situation, Avatar‘s success has brought a great deal of money into the creative realm of 3D, although this only makes up a fraction of the industry at large. The studio that produced the special effects for TRON: Legacy, Digital Domain, has the financial capacity to make films like this. We can reasonably assume that TRON’s success will contribute to a new wave of interest in this sector, paving the way as financial model, if you will.How did you select the works displayed?
By associating ourselves with Disney from the outset, we were granted access to every one of the pieces, which was key. I then went on to select work from the artists who I believed to be the most influential in the weaving of the movie’s fabric: Moebius, Syd Mead, who was behind the original visual universe from the first installment of TRON, as well as that of Blade Runner, Daniel Simon, who designed the new motorcycles, and Michael Wilkinson, who drew the new outfits.The exhibit is on display until March 8 at Chappe Gallery, 4 rue André Barsacq in Paris.To prolong your experience, check out TRONIFIED, a series of photographs published in a special edition of Amusement magazine.
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Alexandre Gilbert: We’ve been influenced by three primary themes since we first opened. Our original influence was graffiti, followed by music, and we now seem to be immersing ourselves further into the world of cinema. Our interest lies in discovering and delving into the making of the celebrated pop culture theme, all the while questioning the creative process that led to the work’s creation in the first place.Is it this new orientation towards cinema that led to this TRON exhibit?
There is a correlation, yes. It’s the fifth animated film that we’ve exhibited at the Chappe, having previously shown Bill Plymton’s Idiots and Angels, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and an exhibition on Winschluss, the animator behind Persépolis, and another on Avatar.The exhibition is made up of many of the preliminary drawings, vehicle and scenery sketches, and storyboards. Did you intend to return to the movie’s origins and pay tribute to a certain artistic scene that inspired the film?
I wanted to explore the origins of the project. What I was interested in discovering was why it had been so influential in capturing the public’s imagination at the time, in particular that of what I would refer to as the information-technology intelligentsia, which would later move toward digital technology. I wanted to explore Moebius and Syd Mead’s initial interest in the original 1930s science fiction comic, and how it was that, while entrenched in the 1970s culture, in a period where films such as Blade Runner were being produced, philosophical theory was being fused with technology to give life to these products of pop culture.
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I wouldn’t put it like that. What is immediately apparent is that the universe imagined in the first TRON was based on the idea that man would one day have access to a virtual reality for play. In TRON: Legacy, what strikes us as especially moving is how this world has now been created, and it is the one in which they now live. There is a complex sense of uncertainty in the film. We become lost in an intense schizophrenia because we too now have an involvement in the world of virtual reality. We unearth a new way of thinking. It’s the excitement of this second chapter.We place a lot of focus on the role played by digital technology, 3D imagery, and the ways in which these techniques are exploited to make up the final opus. Do you still believe it possible for creators like illustrators and designers to be successful in creating new practices?
Yes, of course. If we begin by taking a more pragmatic view on the situation, Avatar‘s success has brought a great deal of money into the creative realm of 3D, although this only makes up a fraction of the industry at large. The studio that produced the special effects for TRON: Legacy, Digital Domain, has the financial capacity to make films like this. We can reasonably assume that TRON’s success will contribute to a new wave of interest in this sector, paving the way as financial model, if you will.How did you select the works displayed?
By associating ourselves with Disney from the outset, we were granted access to every one of the pieces, which was key. I then went on to select work from the artists who I believed to be the most influential in the weaving of the movie’s fabric: Moebius, Syd Mead, who was behind the original visual universe from the first installment of TRON, as well as that of Blade Runner, Daniel Simon, who designed the new motorcycles, and Michael Wilkinson, who drew the new outfits.The exhibit is on display until March 8 at Chappe Gallery, 4 rue André Barsacq in Paris.To prolong your experience, check out TRONIFIED, a series of photographs published in a special edition of Amusement magazine.